Reviewing the season 3 premiere of Supergirl.
The season 3 premiere of Supergirl begins peacefully in a golden field. We are shown clues that this is a dreamlike state because there’s a giant Saturn-esque planet in the background and the abundance of golden light. Kara is joined by Mon-El and later by her mother. This beautiful serenity comes to an end as Kara is woken up by sirens and city noises. We now see Supergirl floating in the sky above National City and we carry the pieces of her broken heart with her.
Despite being heartbroken, Supergirl flies into action to assist Alex and Maggie in catching some heavily armed robbers on a highway chase. Supergirl saves the day, but one of the robbers manages to escape. Supergirl “business only” demeanor is such that she doesn’t stick around to “sign autographs”, as Maggie puts it when a boy shouts out to her “Supergirl, you’re the best!”. She flies straight to the DEO to give Winn a sample of the robber’s blood from her fist so that the lab can profile him. However, Supergirl’s demeanor doesn’t go unnoticed by her friends and colleagues.
At an investor’s meeting, we’re introduced to Morgan Edge, an egotistical real estate developer who’s gathered all of National City’s leaders including our very own James Olsen and Lena Luthor. As Morgan paces around the conference room feeding his ego, he lets everyone know how well his business is doing reconstructing the city in the aftermath of the Daxamite invasion. Luckily Lena and James are there to remind him that Supergirl, a major player in the city’s ability to bounce back, just so happened to save the day. The mayor comments on how the city doesn’t take Supergirl’s contributions lightly and will honor her dedication to the city by unveiling a statue on the waterfront.
It seems that the neighborhood located on the waterfront is Morgan’s true agenda as he explains his plan to drive out low-income residents to build expensive real estate. When James and Lena express how evil his plans are, Morgan belittles their contributions to the city adding that CatCo is fake news and Lena’s charities are out of guilt for the Luthor name. Morgan is eerily sounding very similar to another well-known real estate mogul in our day (enter hand-on-chin emoji here). I love the exchange between Lena and Morgan and she displays that she’s clearly not one to be bulldozed.
At CatCo, Cat Grant has moved out of the media company and into the White House as the new Press Secretary as we catch a glimpse of her press conference on tv. James, back in charge of CatCo, gathers the department heads into his office for a staff meeting where we see how much Kara is mourning losing Mon-El as she brushes off James. Kara sternly expresses to James that her job as Supergirl is more important than her job as a reporter. As James tries to express that he’s there for Kara, Morgan announces his plans to purchase CatCo on tv at a press conference. This Morgan guy has been very busy with many hidden agendas so quickly.
Kara goes to visit Lena about Morgan’s plan to buy CatCo. She hopes that Lena can use her influence to convince Morgan not to buy. Lena takes the opportunity that Kara is in her office to ask about her and why she hasn’t returned her calls. It’s becoming abundantly clear that her friends and family are concerned, but Kara continues to push them away and buries herself in Supergirl work. At the bar where the gang, sans Kara, are gathered, her absence and distance are felt. Alex is having a tough time planning the wedding, and Maggie suspects that there’s more to it, but Alex doesn’t open up to what’s bothering her.
At the DEO, Winn was able to identify our perpetrator, Robert DuBois (aka Bloodsport), and what he was after. When communication systems are down at a military facility, Supergirl flies into action to investigate. She enters the facility and is immediately knocked down by a laser beam literally out of nowhere, but she gets back up and discovers a Daxam ship that had been in cloak mode. Using heat vision, she sees Bloodsport escape from the facility, but an injured soldier calling for help prevents Supergirl from chasing after him. After assuring the soldier that he isn’t suffering from any internal wounds, the “super beeper” goes off.
Supergirl flies off to answer the call and meets James at his office in CatCo as Kara. Apparently, James really needed to meet a deadline and reminded Kara that she hasn’t submitted her article yet. This enrages Kara as she feels that James’ use of the “super beeper” for “Kara Danvers” work was an abuse of his power. However, James tries to express his concern for her, but it doesn’t stop Kara from quitting CatCo. I love a great “I quit my job scene”, but Kara is quitting for all the wrong reasons.
As Kara’s life continues to suffer, the DEO discovers that Bloodsport had taken Daxamite clocking technology and a “high-pressure regulator” which I found amusing how J’onn read it off the screen with conviction. They suspect that Bloodsport will be using the combination of the two to nuke the city undetected, and not even Supergirl will see it coming. As they break off to find a plan on how to proceed, Alex receives a call from James about Kara suddenly quitting her job.
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As we cut into Lena’s visit at Morgan’s office, I’m suddenly questioning evil businessmen and their obsession with golf. We quickly learn that in every business person’s sales pitch is a compliment, as Lena tries to convince Morgan that CatCo doesn’t fit with his portfolio. Lena storms out of his office after Morgan reveals his plan to use CatCo media to manipulate the public, but this isn’t over for Lena. Afterwards, we find out that Bloodsport is working for Morgan.
Later, Alex pays Kara a visit to her apartment. This is the second time we see Kara watching Cat on TV (this time in her apartment) and it leads me to believe that if Cat we’re still at CatCo Kara’s life wouldn’t be spinning out of control. Thus, the reason for Alex’s visit. All types of emotions (for the characters and viewers) in this scene between the Danvers sisters.
Is it finally the weekend and the unveiling of the statue is underway? Supergirl surveys the event from atop a nearby building when J’onn appears with some words of wisdom for Supergirl. You can see his advice working as glimpses of Kara appear as she recalls her dream, but she quickly turns on “serious Supergirl” and get back to work. Alex and Maggie share a touching moment over the coms and Alex reveals that she’s been reluctant about the wedding because her father isn’t present to walk her down the aisle.
We are introduced to a mysterious woman and her daughter as Lena stands on stage giving a short and sweet speech about how Supergirl has impacted her life. Not a moment goes by after the Girl of Steel statue is unveiled when the ground starts to shake and panic erupts. What they thought would be an airstrike turns out to be underwater as Bloodsport rented himself a submarine sending torpedoes towards the waterfront. One land, our mysterious woman exhibits some superhuman strength, unbeknownst to her, when she finds her daughter trapped under a steel beam.
Back underwater and under torpedo fire, Supergirl begins to sink unconscious from an explosion. As we all fear the worst has passed, a vision of Mon-El yelling “wake up” does just that and Supergirl swims back to action saving the day. Kara runs into Lena’s office after the attack on the waterfront to check in on her friend when Lena drops the good news that she has bought CatCo preventing Morgan from doing so. Morgan, of course, isn’t happy about this as he soon enters Lena’s office as well. Supergirl drops by (of course after Kara takes her leave) to carry Morgan off, and shows her sentiments as she abandons him on a freight ship.
Wrapping up the end of the episode, Kara is back! She “unquits” her job at CatCo and rejoins her social life. Alex asks J’onn to walk her down the aisle in the most touching scene this season yet. More tissues! Finally, our mysterious woman has some scary dreams.
The season opener was amazing! More importantly, just like the comics, Supergirl gave us some heavy moral topics to thinks about. So, the biggest takeaway this episode, and maybe this season, we question what does it mean to be human. This lesson couldn’t echo our current state anymore as we come off from reports of non-stop tragedies in the past few weeks. The resignation is deep and one that fans and newcomers to the show will appreciate.
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The second theme that stood out from this episode was “it takes a village”. Kara realizes at the end that she doesn’t have to grieve alone. Even the Girl of Steel can’t prevent tragedy from striking. When we come across tragedies in our own life, we have to lean on others because pushing them out will only lead to greater tragedy: losing ourselves.
Finally, I look forward to seeing the development of our mysterious woman, whom I suspect is our infamous Reign. I feel that overall, this was an excellent episode that played homage to the tone of the comic and I’m grading it a perfect 5.